Should Your Fan be in ON or AUTO?

Athletic trainers tell us interval training is one of the best exercises. It gets your heart rate up, burns fat, and motivates you to give it your all in the next set. In the same way, your air conditioning system isn’t always running in the summertime. And that’s a good thing. Temporary breaks increase the longevity of your cooling system and decrease the dollars you spend on cooling in your month to month utility bills.

Your air conditioning unit runs until it achieves your thermostat set point at any given time. A deviation from the actual versus set point temperature sparks your cooling system to turn ON until the ambient temperature meets the programmed temperature. The reason the actual temperature continues to increase, and your air conditioning unit continues to turn ON to cool it down, is cool air escaping and warm air entering through the cracks, walls, and windows of your home.

Unlike some areas of the country, most homeowners in the St. Louis summertime rely on an air conditioning unit to keep cool. So whether or not to turn ON your cooling unit isn’t the question. The real confusion is whether or not to run your fan in ON or AUTO.

An Argument for ONA fan set to ON, will run whether the cooling system is running or not. Your fan is the endurance athlete and your air conditioning unit is the sprinter. The benefit is air from the warm and cool zones of your home will continuously mix and continue to be filtered through your air filtration system.

An Argument for AUTOA fan set to AUTO, will only run when the cooling system is running. Both your fan and your air conditioning unit are in interval training mode. The benefit is your energy consumption from a big contributor to your utility bill will be reduced.

To solve the case of ON versus AUTO, Hoffmann Brothers can install a variable speed fan. Call (314) 664-3011 for details on this compromise for your cooling system. This type of fan runs most of the time for your comfort but at the optimal speed to keep your energy bills in check.